Serial killer’s former Chicago property hits the market, retail is even destroying Wall Street short-sellers: Daily digest

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Chicago’s biggest real estate news, from breaking news and scoops to announcements and deals. We update this page throughout the day, starting at 10 a.m. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com.

This page was last updated at 5:00 p.m. CT

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration sent a letter Tuesday to Tinley Park officials saying he won’t sell them state-owned land for a proposed racetrack and casino. The decision follows a Chicago Tribune investigation that uncovered Gold Rush Gaming owner Rick Heidner’s long-standing business ties to Parkway Bank and Trust chairman Rocco Suspenzi, whose financial involvement with mob figures helped put an end to the Emerald casino project in Rosemont about two decades ago. [Chicago Tribune]

A house built on the land where notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy murdered and buried 29 of his 33 known victims is on the market for $459,000 in Norwood Park Township. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom house was built after Gacy’s brick ranch was torn down in 1979 as investigators searched for bodies. The 2,500-square-foot home last sold for $300,000 in 2004. [Sun-Times]

CBRE executive Martin Stern died Sunday at age 72 after his esophageal cancer diagnosis about five weeks ago. He served as a longtime real estate adviser to companies, nonprofits and local governments on several major Chicago-area deals, including the sale of the Children’s Memorial Hospital property in Lincoln Park, the Block 37 mixed-use development in the Loop and the construction of the Harold Washington Library in the Loop. [Crain’s]

Formerly homeless families in Chicago are at risk of ending up on the streets again as a result of the housing programs subsidizing their rents losing federal funding. The nonprofit All Chicago Making Homelessness History pulled funds together for some families served by the Human Resources Development Institute, a social services agency that provided long-term rental assistance to more than 40 families and lost funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this year, but those funds are running dry and the families are running out of options, and they’re calling on the agency to do more. [Chicago Tribune]

A Frank Lloyd Wright house in West Pullman, known as the Stephen A. Foster House and Stable, was the cheapest of the famed designer’s listings in the U.S. when it was on the market at $180,000 in 2018. A listing agent told architecture expert Lee Bey that the price had dropped to $175,000 when he photographed the home for his new book, Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side.” [Block Club]

WeWork hits a new low. The co-working giant’s unsecured 7.875 percent bonds due in 2025 were trading at 79 cents on the dollar today, down from its former low of 81.25 cents last Friday. It comes as the company searches for new ways to raise cash. And the company’s communications chief, former spokesman for Travis Kalanick, is leaving after six months. [WSJ, Bloomberg]

Keep an eye out for Jeffrey Epstein’s UES manse. The $56 million townhouse at 91 East 71 Street owned by the disgraced financier is expected to hit the market soon. Contractors are at work dismantling all remaining traces of Epstein and are going so far as to dispose of his former trappings in the dead of night. [NYP]

Apollo Global Management is offering $40 per share for Hilton Grand Vacations. The timeshare resort operator is reportedly the subject of a bidding war between Apollo and the Blackstone Group. Blackstone’s bid is not known but the news of Apollo’s offer caused the Orlando-based company’s shares to rise as much as 10.3 percent. Hilton Grand runs 55 resorts and has more than 315,000 members. [Bloomberg]

Retail is a killer, even on Wall Street. Alder Hill Management, a hedge fund that’s held a more than two year position betting against the debt tied to malls, is shutting down. Despite tough times for retailers, bankruptcies and store closures haven’t resulted in loan defaults and the losses apparently got to be too much for Alder Hill’s founder, Eric Yip. [WSJ]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is introducing a modified ordinance Tuesday to soften her proposed ban on the sale of recreational marijuana throughout most of downtown Chicago. The changes would move the area where the sales would be prohibited east from LaSalle Street to State Street, north of the Chicago River, and north from Oak Street to Division Street. Lifghtfoot’s proposed zoning rules call for seven zones across the city with an initial cap of seven dispensaries each and eventually increasing to 14 in May. [Chicago Tribune]

Related Midwest wants to revise its plan for a 58-story hotel and apartment tower in the West Loop with an additional 18-story office building. The City Council approved the tower more than a year ago, under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but the developer still needs to win approval for a higher zoning allowance for its revised plan from a different City Council and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration. [Crain’s]

Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel are hosting an Oct. 28 fundraiser benefiting Trump Victory, a joint fundraising of President Donald Trump’s reelection fund and the RNC. Trump is set to attend the event, tentatively planned for Trump Tower in downtown Chicago, with access provided through three levels of donations: $2,800 for a lunch ticket, $35,000 per couple for a photo with Trump and $100,000 for an exclusive roundtable sit-down with the president. [Chicago Tribune]

A Walgreens store in the South Side’s Calumet Heights neighborhood is set to close Nov. 11 amid the Deerfield-based pharmacy chain’s plans to shutter 200 stores across the U.S. Residents frustrated by the closing of stores in black neighborhoods will have the chance to speak out Thursday during a community meeting. Target’s decision to close two South Side stores in Chatham and Morgan Park earlier this year prompted protests and an executive order preventing developers receiving TIF money to open new stores from closing stores in other parts of the city. [Block Club]

Three additional Chicago-area real estate brokerages plan to begin offering programs through which home sellers can receive advice and interest-free loans for renovations. Coldwell Banker, Baird & Warner and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Koenig Rubloff Realty Group are launching their own programs, joining Compass, which rolled out Compass Concierge a year ago. [Crain’s]